A Blog with reviews of opera performances, interviews and articles about opera and classical music in general
by a group of musicologists and music professionals

Sunday, 21 February 2016

Giuseppe Verdi, Don Carlo - Semperoper Dresden

Performance 18th February

The first performance of the revival of Verdi's masterpiece at the Semperoper showed that Verdi definitely was the giant genius of Italian opera during the second half of the 19th century. One famous tune after another and in between sheer dramatic tension. Don Carlo is surely one of his greatest works and quite a difficult one to cast appropriately. You need 5 top protagonists and several other smaller supporting characters that manage the musically and theatrically demanding roles. The Production led by Eike Gramms (who passed away last year) created a production that centres around the questions of human relation and still also impresses with great staging and beautiful costumes (both by Gottfried Pilz). A huge wall (some sort of shelf) filled with skulls that acts as wall and floor throughout the evening shows from the very beginning that this whole story will not finish with a happy end. Impressively they use the different levels of the stage to creat space and position the protagonists and the choir.
Musically the performance was as least as impressive as optically. Paolo Arrivabeni jumped in for Myung-Whun Chung who was ill. Arrivabeni showed great Italian passion and great controll over the orchestra during the whole performance. The Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden did a wonderful job following his instructions and played so ravishingly and passionately that also the orchestral parts were a real pleasure to hear. The two choirs (Sächsischer Staatsopernchor and Sinfoniechor Dresden e.V.) also gave a marvelous performance and gave me chills especially during the finale of the second act (not to mention the monks at the very beginning).Peter Lobert as the Monk did not have much to sing during the evening but his two appearances (at least vocally twice) were great with a reverential dark voice that is able to deliver shivery respect.Michael Eder was an evil grand inquisitor through and through. His low and heavy bass sounded really viciously and he managed to increase the intensity of his main appearance during the third act gradually before leaving with a nasty "forse!".
The role of Filipo II was sung by René Pape who still convinces with a such a powerful and dark voice that seems not to age at all. After decades he still a reliable force of nature when it comes to great bass roles. He totally convinced again with a great voices and impeccable acting skills.
Another great performance of the evening was done by Christoph Pohl as Rodrigo. Already having a very powerful and nice sounding entrance he managed to gradually raise up the level of his performance. By the end one was sadder about Pohl not singing anything anymore than Rodrigo dying for his friend. His youthful heroic voice with the beautiful timbre was definitely a highlight of the evening.
My personal highlight of the evening however was Ekaterina Gubanova as Eboli. A role that really calls for a force of nature with a huge range, great power and ideally a good-looking exterior. Gubanova unified all these things in her performance. Her Eboli was powerful, sexy and did not have a problem with the vocal range of the role. Her final aria was immense and earned her a huge wave of applause.
Also Barbara Haveman was able to impress the audience in the role of Elisabetta di Valois. Not just gifted with a big voice that can fill the whole theatre hers was also equipped with a very intimate timbre that depicted the sufferings of her character very appropriately. Her big aria in the final act was a real gem and was rewarded with a storm of enthusiasm.
The title role was sung by Massimo Giordano who has a very interesting voice. Apart from sounding very natural generally his voice tends to have somewhat of a sighing sound. I do not know if this was part of his interpretation, anyway, I did enjoy his portrayal due to the power and the lightness of his voice even though some of the higher notes seemed not really comfortable. However he did a pretty good job in this role and portrayed it really well.
Alltogether I really enjoyed the whole performance and liked every minute of it. I was actually thinking about getting a ticket for another performance to see it again. Who knows. However I would give 9 stars to this great performance I already saw.✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰-
Reviewed by Daniel Url

Daniel Url, B.A.

Daniel Url is a Musicologist from Salzburg, who studied in Salzburg (Austria), Trondheim (Norway) and Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom). His research interests are opera (especially German opera), theory of the fine Arts and vocal music in general. While living in the wonderful town of Salzburg (with the great Salzburg Festival around) he is also travelling to some of the great opera houses in Germany and Austria from Leipzig over Dresden and Vienna to the Bavarian state opera in Munich.

Daniel is the founder of this project and also our main editor and author. For questions, notes or any business inquiries:

daniel0url@gmail.com

Lukas Leipfinger, B.A.

Lukas Leipfinger is a student in Regensburg and is recently doing his Master in German Philology after graduating in German Philology and Musicology. He joined the project in september 2015 as Co-author and is our specialist for male voices. His main interests cover operas from Richard Wagner and the verismo.

Christine Arnold, B.A.

Christine Arnold completed her undergraduate degree in musicology and dance science at Salzburg Universität in Austria and Newcastle University in England. Now she is proceeding her master in musicology and piano studies at the Folkwang Universität in Essen, Germany. Her musical interests are widespread but she counts Verdi's and Mozart's operas to her favourite ones.

Katharina Schiller, B.A.

Katharina was born in Munich and started studying Mathematics/Physics and Musicology there in 2010 and 2011 before moving to Salzburg and continue her studies there. She is a singer herself (choir and solo) since 1995 and is visiting operas regularly. Katharina is our specialist for 17th and 18th century opera.

Genevieve Arkle B.A.

Genevieve Arkle is completing her Master’s in Musicology at King’s College London and in September will be starting her PhD in Music at the University of Surrey. She focuses her academic work in late nineteenth century aesthetics and analysis, and will be writing her PhD project on Mahler’s Ninth and Tenth Symphonies and their relationship with Wagner’s Parsifal. Alongside her academic studies, she has worked with the Royal Opera House with the Jette Parker Young Artist’s Programme and for the English Touring Opera contributing to their Autumn 2015 season and working as Programme Editor of their Spring 2016 season. Most recently she was invited to be a guest writer and journalist for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for their performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony, contributing programme notes and interviewing Mezzo-Soprano Sarah Connolly.